Sunday, May 15, 2016

The use of the Internet and social media as a powerful tool for the targeted expression of rapid public response on issues where government, the judiciary and law enforcement have failed to act is impressive.

Nowhere was that more evident than the recent efforts of large numbers of online activists to prevent delusional racist psychopath George Zimmerman from auctioning off the handgun he used to murder innocent teenager Trayvon Martin back in 2012.

As ThinkProgress.org reported on Friday, Zimmerman first attempted to auction the murder weapon on GunBroker.com, but the site removed the auction minutes after it was posted claiming it wanted no part of the sale or the negative publicity it generated.

So Zimmerman then went to another gun exchange site called United Gun Group to conduct the auction, and the volume of Web traffic temporarily crashed the site.

After the auction began an anonymous Internet user calling himself 'Racist McShootface' joined others in rapidly flooding the Website with fake bids on the gun to drive the price up to $65 million.

Their actions were designed to prevent anyone from buying the murder weapon to thwart Zimmerman's efforts to cash in on murdering a black teenager and getting away with it.

As you may know, the name Racist McShootface is a clever twist on 'Boaty McBoatface', the name British participants overwhelmingly selected in an online poll to name a new government polar research ship; voters were disappointed after government officials decided to name the ship after noted environmental researcher Sir David Attenborough instead.

17 year-old Trayvon Martin

One of the most egregious examples of state judicial systems failing to hold psychotic gun-happy lunatics accountable for killing innocent people was Florida's failure to convict George Zimmerman for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin.

Martin's death triggered global outrage after the teenager was walking back to his house with a bag of Skittles and a drink when Zimmerman, thinking the high school student was a criminal, began following him home.

Despite a police dispatcher instructing Zimmerman not to follow Martin, he eventually confronted the kid, starting a physical confrontation which ended with Martin being shot a stones throw from his own house.

A jury acquitted Zimmerman based in part on his lawyers invoking Florida's absurd 'Stand Your Ground' law which gives gun owners a free pass to shoot and kill anyone if they feel "threatened."

Since walking free 2013, Zimmerman has not only demonstrated no remorse over having stalked and killed Martin, he's actually bragged about it and actually gone out of his way to attempt to cash in on it.

He's showed up at gun shows to sign autographs like some kind of celebrity.

Last September he re-Tweeted a police crime scene photoof Trayvon Martin's dead body after one his "fans" had the gall to post the photo on Zimmerman's Twitter page with the comment that "Z-man is a one man army".

And yeah, that's the same Twitter page Zimmerman has used to call African-Americans "Apes" and "black slime" among other colorful descriptions.

Missouri SB 656 backer Rep Eric Burlison

Did you hear that after all the flood of public outrage and controversy generated by Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law, legislators in the state of Missouri recently passed their own version of the law?

The Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America have condemned the passage of Senate Bill 656 which would allow certain felons, people with no firearms training to carry concealed weapons even though 76% of people in Missouri opposed concealed carry permits.

Republican legislators including representative Eric Burlison were the primary backers of SB 656 and the Missouri Moms are calling on Democratic Governor Jay Nixon to veto the bill.

SB 656 would also give gun owners the right to shoot to kill in public places even if they have the option of walking away from a situation they deem threatening.

Is the pressure being put in Missouri legislators by the NRA stronger than common sense?

After all it was pretty obvious to people around the world that Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law enabled a racist psychopath like George Zimmerman to murder an innocent teenager.

Florida movie shooter Curtis Reeves in court

How can it be in the public interest to pass such a bill in the same state still recovering from the aftermath of the tragedy of Michael Brown being gunned down in the street like an animal by a member of an overtly racist Ferguson, Missouri police department?

'Stand Your Ground' laws haven't made anyone in Florida safer.

They certainly didn't make it safer for 41 year-old Chad Oulson who was shot and killed in front of his wife in 2015 by enraged 71 year-old retired Tampa police captain Curtis Reeves in a movie theater after an argument over Oulson sending text messages on his phone during the movie trailers.

Reeves' lawyers quickly claimed he was using the 'Stand Your Ground' defense as justification for shooting someone in a movie theater with a gun for using a cell phone; the idea that these laws make people safer is absurd.

In fact research conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety showed that the rate of 'justifiable homicides' in Florida tripled after the law was passed, and states with 'Stand Your Ground Laws' experienced a 53% increase in homicides while states without 'Stand Your Ground' laws experienced a 5% decrease in homicides over the same period.

Were legislators in Missouri expecting a different outcome?

Or maybe, since the brunt of the impact of the spike in 'justifiable homicides' disproportionately affects communities of color, the statistics just don't matter to Missouri (and other state) legislators responsible for passing these laws.

Regardless, Zimmerman's actions should serve as a warning sign for any state considering passing a law that makes it okay for people (even someone as unbalanced as Zimmerman) to carry weapons in public and shoot and kill anyone they deem to be a "threat."

Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer

"I don't understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an A-R. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How do we not stop this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook? I'm sitting with a mother who lost her son. It's still happening."

GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA 2018

1,859 Deaths, 30 Mass Shootings

"Society as a whole has a fear of addressing our worst secrets. (Just ask any African-American citizen). It's as if we have a societal blindspot that creates an obstacle to understanding. Society as a whole doesn't acknowledge the reality of abuse."